The guy has all the resources to rekindle that flame by organizing game jams for example. I am sure he‘ll think much more positively about the whole thing a couple years from now when he realized opportunities granted by his success. Either that or he’ll go down the Notch route but I don’t think he’ll be that kind of stupid rich.
Foreign corporations are much more aggressive about harvesting data than the German government so you should think twice about using their products in the first place. Most of the time the German government is under fire for privacy concerns it’s because they trusted products from Microsoft or Huawei and the like.
When they were asked to implement age verification in Germany, they simply pulled anything off their platform in the country that would require it instead. Mind you Germany has a system that makes age verification anonymous so if privacy concerns you, you could just implement it. (Almost no platform does because they want your data though.)
Valve doesn’t want to touch age verification with a 10 yard stick and that tells me it is probably the way to go here. Because once they have it, the path for more regulations is clear.
I have to say I very much prefer the combat system in OS as it feels much more natural and less restrictive than the DnD combat in BG3. Of course the latter has far more content, but I’m looking forward to Larian’s next game where they can finally go wild again and do things they want exactly the way they want.
I honestly expected TGA to be more tone deaf and not address it at all after speeches about the „golden era for gaming“ from previous years. The entire award show is a PR stunt anyway. At least this single award spreads some awarenes and reminds us layoffs aren‘t just a number, but real people.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Mutliplayer games are a huge undertaking because you have no choice but to develop and test for any possible individuality and keep pushing new patches so the game can keep running smoothly. Not to speak of server costs and complex match making systems that typically come with it. No, multiplayer games are hard to make and they’re rarely ever finished.
None of the downsides you’ve mentioned are exclusive to online games, though. Publishers put these mechanics in single player games as often as they do it in online games so you criticism doesn’t make much sense here, to be honest. There are also countless online games that don’t have any of those things.